Page 76 of Code Name: Dante

“No. About Florence? Did you know they lived there?”

“In Siena, actually,” my mom clarified.

Alessandro looked between her and me. “I had no idea, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“I’d love to show it to you one day. I’m sure Amelia would be anxious to as well. The villa has been in the Caputo family for generations. Err, her grandmother’s family,” she added when Alessandro and I both looked at her with puzzled expressions. “And, Mom, the only weight I’ve put on is from this thing.” She unzipped her jacket and pointed to the bulletproof vest she was wearing. “Which I cannot wait to take off. Better will be the day I never have to put it on again.”

“Wow,” I mumbled under my breath, realizing that my mother’s life was like nothing I could ever have imagined.

My eyes filled with tears when I thought about the sacrifices she’d made, the lengths she’d gone to, to keep me safe. Starting from before I was born.

Alessandro put his arm around my shoulders when the doctor came into the room. “Can I speak to you and your mom outside for a moment after you hear what he has to say?”

“Of course,” I said, listening as the man reviewed her discharge instructions, which were brief. Mainly, she was to avoid stress. And maybe, for the first time in her life, she’d be able to.

“I wanted to give you an update on one of the men who abducted you earlier. As you know, Dominic Mazzeo is dead. His grandson, Rocco, is in stable condition. Once he’s released, he’ll be charged and taken to the Fulton County Correctional Center to await indictment and a trial. From what Alice has said, he’s the only surviving member of the family, outside of his mother, who married into it. Anyway, Grit has made arrangements with someone from the bureau to allow a couple of us to question him.”

“Us? Does that mean you’ll be able to?” I asked.

“Rachel McKinney is jockeying for a spot at the table, but Grit told her she owes me one.”

“Do you think she’ll be able to get Amelia in to see Vincent?” my mom asked.

“I can’t say for certain, but outside of safety concerns, I would think something could be worked out.”

“I know it’s important to her.”

Alessandro nodded, but I saw him bristle. Apparently, my mother picked up on it too.

She stepped over to a waiting area with a door and peeked inside, then motioned to us to follow.

“Look, I want you to understand something. Without your brother’s help, I’d be dead. That’s not to say, though, that I’m naive about the kind of man he is. I can’t speak for your mother, Alessandro, but my guess is, she’d say the same thing. Helping me wasn’t a matter of heroics.” She folded her arms in front of her. “Quite the contrary, actually.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“It was always about control with him. At least with me, but I saw signs of it with Amelia and Chiara too. It was only thanks to your mom that he finally backed off and seemed to understand I’d never felt the same way he did for me, and I never would. Anyone thinking we were blind to his crimes, even as they related to us, would be wrong.”

“Noted,” Alessandro said. “And I appreciate the forewarning.”

“We should get back,” I suggested.

“Right. Of course.” My mother opened the door and walked out ahead of us.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine, and just so you know, my mother said something as well, although not as specific, given we had no privacy.”

“Is it odd, then, that they want to see him?”

Alessandro shook his head. “I think it’s about closure. At least in part. Vincent sees himself as the man who carried the world on his back while the world sees him as a control-freak, sociopathic madman.”

I raised a brow.

“Not unlike the man I believed was my father.”

“What you did was brave.”

He shook his head. “It was necessary.”

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